


Forge

by CrystalRebellion



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Battle wounds, Care giving, Character Development, Enemies to Friends, F/M, Fluff, Healing Injuries, Healing pods, Learning to trust, care
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2019-05-23 14:34:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14936133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrystalRebellion/pseuds/CrystalRebellion
Summary: A brief glimpse into the time between the death of Zarkon at the end of Blood Duel and the discussion on the bridge at the beginning of Postmortem.  What transpired between the time that Lotor finished in his battle and he was healed and cleaned up to discuss the upcoming events?  (One-shot) (Allura x Lotor)





	Forge

“We need to go.”

Her words cut through the ringing in his ears.  Warily, he glanced to his side.  The Princess of Altea stood there, studying him intently.  Donned in pink Paladin armor, she gestured quickly to the Castleship that had touched down on the planet.

“It is not safe to remain here,” she added.

Lotor blinked, attempting to clear the halos of light from his vision.  The hum of impact still rang in his ears, making it difficult to process what she said.  She cast a look up to the sky as the Red and Yellow Lion still circled about in a patrol pattern.

“ _Prince Lotor._ ” Her voice was more insistent, cutting through the aural aberration.

“Of course, Princess,” he murmured, unable to fully process what was happening.  Smoke infiltrated his nose and clouded his lungs.  Dust, dirt and the scents of debris and death hung in the air.  He cast one last glanced over his shoulder at the fallen tyrant on the earth.

_A heartbeat._

His vision pulsed and it took all he could to focus on pressing forward, behind the fierce Altean warrior leading the way back to her airbound fortress.

“The bayard,” he mumbled, his mouth feeling unnaturally dry, the words difficult to form on his lips.

“The Paladins will reclaim it,” she affirmed.

Somewhere in the background, a heavy noise of steel touching down on desert ground sounded.

“I should,” he paused to cough, a strange pain burning through his chest, as if a thousand needles were rupturing him.

“You should absolutely not, whatever you were going to suggest.”

Her voice was strong and firm, and it was the only stimulus around him that he could focus his attention on.  Everything echoed strangely, the light flickered in and out of focus and even the ground seemed… unsteady.

As they stepped inside the castle, Lotor raised his eyes and braced his intention, ready for the barrage of questions that would come his way.  He blinked as Allura turned to face him curiously.  No other Paladin rushed to greet them, no other soldier harkened his arrival.

He studied her for a moment. 

Something felt… _off._

He swayed.

Time slowed for the prince and he watched with a disassociated fascination as her eyes widened before she impulsed herself bodily toward him.

_Something was wrong._

Lotor knew it the moment he didn’t flinch at her sudden advance.  Everything around him sounded washed out and the lights appeared hollow - without substance.  A warmth snaked around abdomen, but he had little time to process it as the world before him went black.

* * *

_Pain._

He grunted and exhaled.  Pain was nothing new.  The more pressing question that filtered to his mind was… _who_ was causing the pain this time?

Where would he awaken?

What battle lay on his conscious horizon?

What chains must he break?

He cursed mentally, irritated.  He snorted, allowing the burn to rustle along his torso.

_You’re too weak. You’ll always be weak.  You have Altean blood running through your veins._

He lips curled up slightly in a snarl at the memory – the dream. 

_Poisoning your very being._

A hiss passed his lips and his eyes flashed open. Lotor blinked for a moment in surprise at the cyan light overhead.  He stared.

As if reading his consciousness, the dome shattered gently before him in a hexagonal pattern.  He stared up at the strange, artificial lights.  Carefully, he leaned forward, ready to test the binds about him.

Something _warm_ struck his chest.  It was neither aggressive nor forceful, but it carried a presence of power.

“Careful.”

Indigo irises blinked at him in tense response.

Her face remained unreadable, impassive.  After a tick passed between them, she yielded.   The crinkle in the corner of her eye belied her concern.

“How are you feeling?”

The princess’s words were nearly like a song in the air.  He inhaled deeply, quickly taking in his surroundings as he processed the image.

Lotor guessed he was somewhere on the Altean ship, but he couldn’t recognize where – not that he’d seen much of it to begin with.

His body was reclined into a vertical pod, and the princess stood before him her palm splayed flat on his chest, preventing him from pitching forward as he had nearly done at first.  As if sensing he had stabilized his faculties, she withdrew her hand quickly back to her side and continued to regard him warily.

“What did you do to me,” he whispered, his eyes narrowing on her.  Lotor’s fingertips reached up to touch the sides of the enclosure, inspecting it.

Allura stepped back from him, a frown marring her features as if he’d struck at her.  His hardened gaze returned when she didn’t answer him right away.

“What are you talking about?”  He studied her intently, trying to divine what manner of tests and experiments she had run while he was unconscious.  As Allura backed away, he stepped forward out of the pod and carefully turned his attention back to the tiny cell.

“This, what is this?”  He tapped the metal of the Altean technology.

“It’s …just a healing pod.”

Lotor froze.  The heartbeat in his chest stilled momentarily as her words settled in place.  He couldn’t have possibly heard her right.

“A healing pod,” he repeated, tasting the phrase on his lips.  It felt false.  When she only nodded, he frowned at her dubiously. “And why would you do that?”  He felt his expression soften automatically as her own contorted into one of shock.  The princess before him seemed truly aghast that he would even pose such a question.

He muttered a low curse and looked back to the impressive technology.  Even for a nearly-extinct race, he still found himself overwhelmed by the scientific advancements.

Lotor withdrew his palm in surprise as the hexagonal energy barrier sprang back up, sealing the pod off.  Curiously, he pressed his hand over the protective dome, spreading his fingers wide while marveling at the construction.  A soft cough behind him courted his attention and he looked back to Allura.

“Do you not… feel a difference?”  He watched as her eyes flitted over him before returning to his face, a strange expression in her eyes.

_Concern._

Admittedly, he _did_ feel better.  His senses had returned in full force and the ache in his chest had receded.

“Yes,” he replied after a moment.

“In case you were curious,” she murmured, turning her back to him to face the central command station.  A screen lit up in front of her and he watched, curiously, as her slender digits tapped rapidly across the surface. “Behind you.”

He turned, his eyes returning to the pod he had occupied.  Across the domed barrier, readings appeared.

Lotor’s eyes widened and his heart nearly stopped when he recognized what he was seeing.

“These are-”

His eyes snapped to the princess, but her back remained politely to him.

“I have not looked at them,” she said softly, granting him privacy.  “There’s a red indicator in the lower left.  Once you press that, your vitals will be purged from the Castleship memory banks.  It’s a natural scan the pod runs automatically to determine exactly what treatment is needed, and then proceeds accordingly.”

He looked slowly back to the numbers on the screen and swiped his finger over them, scrolling through the list of details curiously. Broken bones, strained muscles, bruised tendons… nothing he hadn’t expected from his encounter with his father. Lotor’s hand froze suddenly, hovering over the one piece of information he had worried would be present.

_Blood type._

A nervousness fluttered in his chest as he looked between the damning information at the Altean.

“Why didn’t you look?”  Lotor was pleased with how level and aloof his voice sounded, despite the pulse hammering in his ears.  That was information she did _not_ need to have.

“It felt… intrusive.  It was not necessary for me to see it for the machine to heal you.”  She shifted quietly, her hips rocking her weight from one foot to the other.  In a second, he realized what he was seeing. 

She was _nervous._

Allura was willingly, without being asked, turning her back on him to yield him privacy with his medical affairs, despite how difficult that act might have been for her.  He had, after all, struck down Zarkon when the man had made the very same mistake.

The ice in his chest thawed with the faith that she was not holding truth from him in her statements.  No one would willingly put themselves in that state of discomfort if she had already looked over the information.

_Neither was it necessary to even share that it existed._

Lotor nodded, confident in his calculations and his metric assessment of the woman.  Looking back to the pod, he tapped the red portion of the panel.  After being prompted to confirm, the information vanished.

“It’s gone,” he murmured, watching as Allura turned slowly to face him again.  She nodded briefly, folding her hands in front of her, relaxing marginally.

“When you’re ready, I’ll call for the Paladins and we can meet them on the bridge.  It’s probably best for us to talk about what happens next,” she hedged carefully.

_Next._

He exhaled, still reveling in the odd sensation that Zarkon was gone.  A sweeping undercurrent of paranoia thrummed through him, waiting for the monster to spring from the shadows. 

“Is he…”

Allura blinked, a warm smile pressing to her lips.  Lotor found himself briefly stunned – he wasn’t sure he had seen her smile before.

“Zarkon is gone, and we’ve recovered the Black Bayard,” she assured him, realizing the unspoken question.  Lotor only found regret in that his relief did not mirror her own.  An alarming emptiness snaked its way through him, as if a void opened up.

“Perhaps we should go meet the others, then,” he suggested, quick to distract himself with strategy and tactics before the dread and darkness settled in.  Eventually, he reasoned, he would have to come to terms with what he had done. 

Not yet. 

Not today.

The princess nodded and pressed a quick hail over the terminal, requesting the Paladins’ attendance.  As the call ended, she reached over and moved aside a small chair that he had not noticed at first.

“Princess,” he murmured before he caught himself.  She glanced over her shoulder at the mention of her title.  When her head tiled to the side curiously, he continued.  “Did… what was that for,” he nodded toward the piece of furniture.

Allura quietly turned from him and began leading the way to the hall leading to the bridge.

“I wanted to make sure no one disturbed you while you recovered,” she stated simply.

“How long?”

Allura stilled briefly in her gait at the question, as if hesitant to respond.

“Approximately eighteen vargas.”

Lotor stared as she touched open the door as another layer of complexity fell over Alfor’s daughter.  While he could never have predicted the kind of person she would be upon learning of her existence – he was quickly finding that he was not disappointed.

He nodded once, though she couldn’t see it.

“Very well, shall we meet the Paladins?”

“Unfortunately, time is short,” she agreed, pausing outside the open door.  He blinked, realizing she meant to walk beside him, not in front.  He exhaled and tamped the urge to smile as he stepped into place, the two pathing swiftly to the center of the castle.

Time was indeed, quite short.  The Kral Zera would be on the horizon, and Lotor was anxious to bring the Paladins up to speed.


End file.
